Also Watch

Top Contributors

Dragnet (1967)

1967-70 revival of the classic 1951-59 police drama Dragnet. Jack Webb reprises his role from the earlier series as Sgt. Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department. Harry Morgan played his partner, Officer Bill Gannon. The show, filmed in documentary style, dealt with real life cases from the files of the LAPD. The names were always changed to protect the innocent.

When the original show (Dragnet (1951)) ended, Joe Friday had been promoted to Lieutenant. However, Jack Webb decided to make Friday a sergeant again for the new series because "few people remember that Friday was promoted toward the end of our run. We think it's better to have Joe a sergeant again. Few detective-lieutenants get out into the field."

Through all 100 episodes of the series, Friday is only seen wearing something other than his regular suit four times: three times for undercover work and once for a scene in his apartment.

Episodes from this series were used as training tools by the real-life LAPD.

When Jack Webb revived the show in 1966, it was in response to the growing tide of teen-age drug use, especially LSD.

Jack Webb would pay $25 to any officer who submitted a story that was used for an episode plot.

During the run of this version, the title would change to reflect the year that it was broadcast in (Dragnet 1967, Dragnet 1968 and so on).

Friday's badge number (seen at the beginning and end of each episode) is 714. Badge 714 belonged to Sgt. Dan Cooke, the technical advisor. The badge has been retired and displayed at the LAPD Academy's Museum.

The pair of hands seen hammering the Mark VII logo at the end of every episode belong to Jack Webb.

For the sake of continuity, Friday and Gannon always wore the same outfits in every episode. According to Harry Morgan, he and Jack Webb decided to switch coats for one scene to see if anyone noticed. Because only Morgan was in the scene, no one on the set realized it until the scene had been shot. In the next scene, Morgan has on the correct coat. This is the only incident of faulty continuity in the series' run.

Friday and Gannon used a 1967 Ford Fairlane 4dr. sedan as their squad car.

According to the book Curveballs and Screwballs, the number 714 was selected to be Friday's badge number as a way to pay homage to Babe Ruth's all time home run record, which at the time was 714.

Jack Webb had intended to do another revival of the series in 1982. However, because of Harry Morgan's commitments to both M*A*S*H and its spin-off AfterMASH he didn't sign on for the proposed remake. Webb then decided to cast Kent McCord in the role of Friday's new partner; either as "Jim Reed" (the character McCord played on Adam-12 (1968)) or as a new character altogether. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition due to Webb's passing due to a massive heart attack in December 1982.

When the revival was in the planning stages, Jack Webb had originally planned on bringing in his former co-star Ben Alexander to reprise his role as Officer Frank Smith. However, Alexander was appearing on the ABC series "Felony Squad" (1966) and that network would not let him out of his contract to appear on the revival. Webb then chose Harry Morgan to play the new character of Officer Bill Gannon.

Gannon and Friday's car was known as unit 1K80.

During the series' run, there were several references to a fictional department store named Barton's. The store was possibly a stand in for the real life Bullock's, a high end department store chain in Los Angeles, which went out of business in 1996.

Bill Gannon was married and stated he had four children, while Joe Friday was a confirmed bachelor.

This episode convinced Jack Webb to hire Kent McCord as the second lead in his new series "Adam-12".

In this story 'Virginia Vincent (I)' is playing a woman who is supposed to be 29 years old even though she was almost 50 years old at the time of its filming.

"Fur" is Latin for "Thief"

At the beginning of the show, Friday and Gannon are at a meeting of American Legion LAPD Post 381. This is the actual post number for the LAPD American Legion post.

This is a remake of an episode from the radio version of the series.

Both of the Internal Affairs detectives assigned to investigate the shooting are lieutenants. This is entirely accurate, as LAPD has always staffed its Internal Affairs Division with senior detectives.

In this episode, Joe Friday appears in the customary "lineup" epilogue.

The Lt. Pierce Brooks in this episode was apparently named for the real-life LAPD detective who investigated the famous Onion Field murder case.

Joe Friday's weapon is a Smith and Wesson model 10 6 shot K-frame revolver. This is the only time in the newer version that he fired his weapon in anger. He only fired once and hit the suspect in a vital chest area just as taught to officers of the time. The suspect bled to death within minutes.

Episode aired on October 12, 1967, in the episode it's assumed it is a Friday. Bill and Joe watch a football game between the L.A Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. In 1967 the 49ers played in L.A. On October 8th. San Francisco won 27-24.

The portrayal of black professional people in a predominantly white show was unusual in the 1960s. However, Jack Webb had long been very outspoken against racism, even doing a radio series in 1946 called "One Out of Seven" that specifically addressed the issue of racism in every episode.

Dragnet has often used the same actors for different roles, whether cops, suspects, or supporting characters. Sometimes the actor plays the same cop in several episodes. In this episode, Art Gilmore plays Captain Howe, as he did in 4 other episodes. In the very next episode in the series, Gilmore plays Captain Lambert, as he did in one other episode. He has also been Captain Green, Captain Brown, Captain Walton, Captain Milemore, Captain Colwell, and Captain Nelson, as well as Lieutenant Moore. All told, he appeared in 14 episodes, playing 9 characters.

Bonnie Bates is portrayed by Virginia Gregg, who several years earlier portrayed another "Mrs. Bates" -- in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Virginia Gregg provided the majority of the on screen voice for Norman's mother.